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Aug 23, 2007

Gen Y Princess Humbled. (Not)

Arise, ye wretched of the earth,
For justice thunders condemnation.
A better world is now in birth,
The earth shall rise on new foundations.

No more, tradition's chains shall bind us.
Arise ye slaves, no more in thrall.
We have been naught but come tomorrow,
Things will change and we shall be all!

The Princess is back! She's still her old self, full of cliches about dialogue and community and kicking major butt.

She claims, however, to have been slightly humbled by criticism from the Recruitosphere and has been moved, thereby, to confess a few sins while remaining as true as ever to la revolucion.

And what were those sins? As a cheerleader for Gen Y the Princess deliberately hid its limitations. And what are they?

1. Gen-Y will not change the world immediately. It will take a few days. And, yes, it's sure to make some errors on the way.

[Trust me, honey, in ten years, most of your comrades will have deserted the cause. Some will be chuckling over the dopey things they said when they were young while others will be criticizing their old beliefs in no uncertain terms.

My prediction is that you, however, will remain true to the cause, enumerating Gen Y's unique accomplishments and fighting the old battles till your children chuckle about it at your funeral in 3007. "Oh, Mom, she was such a fanatic. But there were good things about it, too."]

2. Gen Y is idealistic and naïve. But unrealistic optimisim is a key incentive for progress.

[It built the Soviet Union, didn't it? And brought democracy to Iraq].

3. The current (Boomer) regime is twisted. Princess Becky and her comrades will not only break every rule but will change the very meaning of what it means to win.

[Some concession. Favourite band: Rage Against The Machine]

4. Impatience is one of Gen Y's virtues but patience does, at times, have value, as well. After all, Gen Y doesn't want to burn out before the revolution.

(That's true. Everyone needs a spa day and, after all, that's what Gen Y is fighting for, isn't it, a more humane approach to labour?).

5. "Young workers shouldn’t have to pay dues to a workforce that is often dirty, unethical and shameful." However, (major concession) Gen Y will have to live in the real world, after all. And, will have to tolerate a certain amount of drudgery.

6. Most movements today suffer from a lack of visionary leadership. So Gen Y needs to cultivate leaders. Mind you, La Princessa does concede that it is true, not everyone is suited to be a leader.

7. Friends, this one is so full of double-talk it's hard to understand. According to the princess.

"Gen Y plays the field of careers. It’s not good. But it’s not bad."

"Loyalty is important..[but]... We’re twenty-somethings; loyalty means something different to us. It’s not about time, but the value that the company and the Gen-Y employee offer each other."

The Princess ends her spell of humility (where was it, did I miss it?) with a plea for some advice.

"How can Generation Y show respect and learn from previous generations so that we may fully engage in meaningful interactions to our mutual benefit? How can we work together to fulfill our dreams? Come together."

Princess, Princess! The first thing you can do is ditch the cliches and that stilted way of talking. "Come together?". "Meaningful interactions?". This is a blog! It's supposed to be down to earth. But I know I'm asking for too much when I say "No management-speak!" and "No cutesy greeting card stuff, either!". It seems to be in your bones.

But, here's the real thing you have to understand. You might have read in the paper that you are something special because you were born after 1977. But you're not. You're just a person. And you're not really on the other side of any kind of divide.

You talk like you just dropped down from heaven and you're going to clear up all the problems your parents left behind. But here's where we differ: Gen Y doesn't seem that radically different, at all. You use Twitter and you want more rights at work. Is that something to crow about? Endlessly?

Princess, I believe in progress. And I think the world keeps getting better. You're part of that process, that's all. You're not going to launch a revolution (thankfully) and you're not the greatest thing since sliced bread.

You, personally, seem to have a social conscience so you might end up as the director of a charity or a happy morning radio host. But, if you believe that other people are going to think that this makes you hot stuff and are, therefore, going to tolerate your endless put-downs of everyone else, you've got another thing coming.